


of Blood and Bone

by mrschimchim7



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst, Badass, Dystopian, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Family, Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Ogres, Original Character(s), Romance, Troll - Freeform, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:21:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22903105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrschimchim7/pseuds/mrschimchim7





	1. Chapter One

When asked how to deal with the fae, the two most common answers you'll get from anyone is salt and iron.

Now salt could kill but it would be as effective as choosing a pebble to kill a person. Pin a fae, like a fairy or dwarf, down and bury it under salt or kill people by burying them under pebbles. A slow, painful and utterly pointless method. Salt, to those more experienced would only deter the smaller, and irritate the larger.

Iron is the favoured method to kill fae, with an iron blade through its heart, or iron bullet through its head a faes death is guaranteed . The issue with iron is getting close which requires more speed and skill than the regular human could manage. Usually ending with the human dead before they could bring the iron out to play. Making iron an efficient but pointless method of dealing with fae if you weren't trained.

No, Tala's preference when it came to dealing with fae was an easy one, negotiation. Or when that failed, as Tala ducked the swooping fairy who had decided that she should be blamed for the iron netting over its home, resort to bribery.

"The netting comes down when you stop eating McCreery's chicks," squatting low, and covering her hair, she listened to the angry chittering of the fairy and let out a frustrated huff. If McCreery had called her in before he dropped a damned iron net, maybe the fairy would listen. "I am sorry about the iron, but you made the farmer feel like he had no choice," ducking another rage filled swoop, Tala threw a angry glare in the direction of her client who was hiding in his warm house, not out here playing tag with an enraged fairy in negative degree weather. "Okay! You stop eating his chicks and leave his animals alone, we will take the iron down and McCreery will allow you access to one row of his strawberries!" 

  
The fairy's angry screams came to an abrupt stop as Tala was sure they would. Strawberries had the effect of a narcotic on the furious fairy and its brethren. McCreery had a chick problem because he had used the majority of his iron, building a fairy proof cage around his award winning garden. Taking a chance that her bribe had worked, Tala rose to her full height and came face to face with the grinning five-inch fairy that ten minutes prior had been terrorizing her.

  
Looking at the fairy's face, you could be mistaken into believing that they were similar to humans, with a humanoid body and a face that could almost be called pretty by people standards. Until the fairy flashed the razor sharp teeth that announced it as a predator and its preference for meat. With skin the shade of moss, hair nearly identical to the bark of a red pine common in these woods and wings so translucent that only when it stilled could Tala now see them. Giving a stern look to the fairy, Tala easily pulled the netting down from around the tree, ready to use it as a shield incase the fairy decided to go for her hair again. Birds would be using her black strands in their nests for weeks to come.

"Stay away from McCreery's animals, and you'll get your strawberries," Tala promised the fairy, who with one fierce glare, disappeared within the knot of the tree it called home. Rolling her shoulders to release the tension built, Tala headed towards the house where the wiry form of McCreery stood, a scowl clear on his face.

  
"Why is that fae blasted thing not dead?" he demanded of Tala as she reached the porch. "You told me you would kill the damned thing!"

  
"No I told you that I would help you with your problem, I don't kill unless I have no choice," Tala reminded McCreery firmly, the bluster in his voice rolling straight over her. "I kill this fairy all it does is provide an opening for another predator to arrive, a fairy we can negotiate with, and they are territorial enough that no other predator will try to move in."

  
"Well then why'd you go and take that off," he cried desperately pointing at the rolled up iron netting Tala had placed at his feet. "That damned pest ain't gonna let me near that tree again and since you didn't kill it, what the hell am I supposed to do?"

  
"McCreery, I wouldn't have pulled the netting down if I hadn't come to a solution and considering the deal I offered, predators preying on your animals will drop drastically after today."

  
"Deal? What kind of deal?"

  
"The fairy leaves your animals alone and in exchange you let it have some of your strawberries." Keeping a bland expression, Tala watched in fascination as McCreery's face went through several shades of red matching that of his award winning crop.

"Strawberries!" he roared spittle flying from the corner of his mouth, his young wife who had been peering through the window, jumped back with a squeak at the sound of her husbands rage.

  
"A couple strawberries here and there for the safety of your chicks," Tala reminded him calmly, keeping an careful watch on her client. Wouldn't be good for old McCreery to die on her watch, she really wouldn't get any more work around here. A town of Wellington's size with no experienced enforcer and a large fae population was a score she wasn't quite ready to give up.

  
"Trust a fae," the scoff from McCreery would've been insulting to Tala if it wasn't a common occurrence. The shoot first ask question later mentality of dealing with fae and other beings was a popular stance, especially in the country side far from the big cities where the more dangerous fae lived and ruled.

  
"Trust a fae, as this fae must trust you." Tala warned him, "If you don't honor your end of the deal, the fairy's revenge will be swift and painful."  
Nodding her head at the flash of fear in the mans eyes, she grabbed the satchel he had been gripping, feeling the weight of his silver. "If you have any other issues, you know where to find me".

"You take the money and leave?" he cried as Tala turned to leave, "what if the monster breaks the deal, what then? Shall you kill it then?" Tala turned enough that McCreery was in her line of sight and smiled.

"I've found that monsters are much more honorable than humans." Something on his face made Tala cautious. "If I return because you have broken the deal, I will do nothing to defend you from the fae."

  
"What kind of blooded are you, to side with monsters over your fellow human"

  
"A dud."


	2. Chapter Two

"A dud," shaking her head at the dramatic statement Tala headed to Sheba, an enormous piebald of grey and white. Standing eighteen hands high with a powerful body, Sheba was a clear throwback to her Percheron ancestors. Tala stepped past the nip aimed at her exposed forearm with a laugh. Loyal in a manner uncommon amongst horses, Sheba made sure her displeasure at being left behind was clear. "Bite me later, I think that fairy left a bald patch." A push from Sheba wiped the pout off her face, laughing she gave Sheba a kiss, before dodging another push.

"An angry mare would be as helpful as that fool McCreery," Tala reasoned patting down her neck. "Though you would have surely been more help." Pulling her lead free from the trunk it had been tied around, Tala pulled herself upon Sheba's back. "Lets get out of these damn woods, before the fairy decides she wants more hair".

The village of Wellington was an average sized human settlement, three days ride from the nearest city. With a population of seven hundred and sixty three, they weren't prime picking for a local Blooded house. Powerful houses were often in large populated areas, a case of cause and effect. Humans felt safe with Blooded House's and flocked wherever the Houses were. The bigger the city, the greater the Blooded population, and a town of Wellingtons size, meant they did not enjoy the benefits of Blooded protection. Tala had used her Blooded status and former enforcer skills to gain a lucrative position within the village, but both only gave her so much leeway with the isolated and small minded community. She was human enough to live amongst them, but the sense of other - no matter her self-proclaimed title of dud - had the very human population keeping her at a distance.

It had been three hundred years since the fall of man and rise of magic. Creatures and beings once relegated to myth began emerging in the world. The fae, many of whom were alive during the fall, speak of the carnage humans had committed against the planet, and the balance they returned. Human elder's spoke of destruction wrought upon their ancestors, of the of humans who died in the first years, humans who survived and humans changed.  
  
Tala had spent her entire childhood and adolescences training as an enforcer for her House and the early years of her twenties in the wilds as a vassal enforcer of her House with the fae. Fighting alongside the fae for longer than any other had made her an asset, more than her family could have hoped for. The Johnson family were a minor Blooded family, not powerful enough to take the title of a House, but with enough power to be major vassals under one. Tala was born a null, a rare occurrence in a family as powerful as the Johnson's, and a black mark for her siblings if they wished to marry someone from a more powerful line. Becoming an enforcer had been the best way to prove her worth and cement her position as a necessary member of her house. Ironically, Tala mused, becoming an enforcer was what made her choose to leave the protection of her House and the city she had once called home.

Now Wellington was her home, for as long as she could bare being around this many people. Eventually she and Sheba would move on until they found another village or town in need of an enforcer and with the silver to spare. 

It was dark by the time she saw the torches of the watch gate, nodding at the guards. No doub she was the most interesting person to come through the gates, Sheba guided them the fifty yards from the guard tower to her little a one bedroom house. Eager to shower and massage her poor scalp, Tala slid off Sheba and guided her to her single stall stable the town elders had built for her. Some perks to her choosing to stay here, was the councils desire to keep her. They had tried to bribe her with many things, and had even attempted to nurture a romance between her and the local blacksmiths son. Though the enraged mothers of the town helped her squash that plan down swiftly. Rye was too handsome, skilled and kind for them to allow a strange blooded girl to take him from the eligible women of Wellington. Smiling at the remembered look of horror on Rye's face as he was dragged away by one such mother, Tala made note to visit the smithy tomorrow.

A huff from Sheba brought her out of her thoughts, "Sorry," she murmured noting she had instinctively stripped Sheba down and was already brushing her, "eight years and you have me fully trained," Tala laughed nuzzling her ornery mount. A gift for her eighteenth from her grandfather, with Sheba's impressive lineage, many considered it too great a gift for a useless Blooded. But the moment her grandfather saw Sheba being her bad-tempered self, he knew she was the perfect mount for his determined granddaughter. Sheba had been with her through all her highs and her lowest of lows as an enforcer, Tala wasn't sure she'd have made it as far without her beloved mount.

Checking Sheba's feed bunk was full and giving her mount one last pat down, Tala made her way into the quiet of her house. Uncaring of where she threw her jacket and shoes, Tala dropped to her knee and pried the floorboard, under her small dinner table, away. Few would dare steal from her, but she wasn't going to tempt fate. Taking a finger from a thief would not endear her continual occupation to the citizens. No matter how desperate the elders were to keep her here, if the citizens wanted her gone, there would be little they could do. Emptying her silver into the iron box which was carved with numerous sigils and runes to keep the determined out, she pulled the board back into place and repositioned her table.

Seeing the light from her bedroom fireplace, Tala smiled. While she had been thinking of Rye, she had clearly entered his thoughts as she took in the bathtub filled with water. Fighting a smile, Tala stripped naked and slid into the water still warm from the fire, letting the heat soak into her body. Rye was the closest thing she had to a bestfriend, if you excluded Sheba. Tala swore for the umpteenth time, if he had set off even the smallest of sparks within her, she would have fought every woman in this town for him, job be damned. The scent of lavender wrapped around her like a soothing blanket and with a sigh she let the tension drain from her body.  
"Rye, you gem of a man."

There was a simple pleasure in a long bath and a freshly made bed, in being clean and exhausted, knowing she had done nothing that day to keep her from sleep. It had taken a year of running before the blood stopped painting her dreams, and her subconscious quieted the screams of death that once plagued her every moment. There were days when Tala knew she couldn't escape her nightmares, but the further she got from her life as a House enforcer, the less those moments occurred. It would be a fae cursed day before Tala would step foot in the territory of a major House again. Tala would choose to live in towns like Wellington, with people she would forever be apart from, never truly belong, and never regret.

Never again would she allow herself to be a pawn to House politics, never again.

**Author's Note:**

> The mythology behind all of the magic and creatures and beings I have in this story are a mix between known lore and pure imagination on my part, so if the fae act different to what the lore of them say, that's all on me lol.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, any constructive criticism or compliments leave in the comments below! Thank you


End file.
